Yes, yes we do / jack bedell 

What type of person chases

       down the snake that’s just

                   bitten him on the ankle?

His anger must be pure,

       clean-burning fuel, rich

enough to give him speed

       to run down the serpent’s tail,

snatch it up by writhing curves

       and chomp off its head

with his own teeth.

The metallic taste of snake’s blood

       must surely dance on his tongue

                   like the sweet dervish of revenge.

And don’t we all deserve to feel

       that kind of surge just once?

The pleasant denouement

       of the snake’s head spat out

                   plunking onto the dirt path, too?

Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. His latest collections are Elliptic (Yellow Flag Press, 2016), Revenant (Blue Horse Press, 2016), and No Brother, This Storm (Mercer University Press, Fall 2018). He has recently been appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to serve as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.